The Sand Dunes And Subsequent Adventures
by MRACR
Summary: When two girls meet the flock, the entire flock, things get weird. Was JP really so wrong? Just how much planned danger can they get themselves rescued from? And, most importantly, CAN THEY FLY?
1. Chapter 1

**_Okay, people. My friend came over and we decided to change this around a bit. So, here's the brand new first chapter! lol I know it's been forever since I updated but hopefully with this new version I'll be able to, like, _actually _update it. Anyway, here you go! Hope you like it and review!!_**

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Chapter 1:

Perhaps the Great Sand Dunes weren't the hottest place in the world, but when you're right smack in the middle of them, it sure feels like it.

"We didn't even bring any water. I mean, how stupid is that? We forgot the basic need of all humanity! Water! We're gonna die! We're doomed!"

The girl droning on about how doomed they were was Cassidy Bennett, aged 17.

She was one of a party of two, trekking the endless expanse of hot sand between the desert-forest and the Dunes themselves. Not so much of a party, really. The second girl, Erma Niac, aged 17 as well, wasn't even wearing her party shoes. Just sneakers. And although Cassidy was wearing flip-flops, they were, in this case, not the smartest choice in footwear.

"And my feet hurt!" the flip-flopped girl cried.

There was no one in sight. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Some small dots on the top of the tallest Dune were evidence of another hiking party out on this blazing hot, sunny day. They'd made it to the top. They probably had water. The two girls hadn't even made it to the slopes yet. And Cassidy wasn't convinced they were going to.

"Maybe we can just go to the Dunes and back, we don't actually have to climb them," Erma suggested.

"Sure!" Cassidy agreed without delay. "But that still leaves the problem of getting the rest of the way there, and of course, back! Without water. We're doomed!"

"Now, that's not very optimistic of you," Erma said. But secretly, she thought Cassidy might be right. "We must hold on!" she suddenly said, valiantly. "We must make it there and back! We can do it!"

A hot, wearying hike was definitely not what they needed to conclude a perfectly good day. The day had started and continued on in a gloriously endless discussion of their favorite book. Until they'd gotten here, to this hopeless desert.

We don't even have enough strength or energy or breath to talk about MR, Erma inwardly moaned.

"Ow! Hot hot hot," Cassidy said, hopping quickly on one foot as she vainly tried to empty sand from her other sandal. "Flip-flops!" she exclaimed in self-disgust.

"Why did you wear flip-flops?" Erma asked innocently. "Didn't you hear your mom say we were coming here?"

"Well yeah," Cassidy put her flip-flop back on and hurried up the gritty stretch of sand to where her friend waited, "but I didn't think we'd be walking so far in hot sand. I thought we'd, you know, just sit around and look at it and—ugh, that was a rock. That hurt."

After that they started walking in earnest and had to stop talking, the cloudless—oh wait, there was one tiny, tiny cloud in the distance—blue sky stretching overhead, sun beating down mercilessly on their exposed necks and backs. Even simply clad in t-shirts and shorts, the girls were dying of heat, of exhaustion, of dehydration.

"Oh, I'm feeling so faint!" Erma exclaimed, stopping in her tracks.

Cassidy spun to face her. "What happened to 'we must carry on'?"

"Someone save me!" Erma put the back of her hand to her forehead in a traditional gesture of fainting and Cassidy, thinking that Erma was looking at something in the sky, turned and scanned it. There were a couple of specks, or was that her vision going haywire without water—

A sudden thump sounded behind her and she spun again to face empty air, mounds of tan and brown and yellow, the air practically seething with absence of Erma.

Looking down, she saw her friend slumped in a heap, fainted, flat out on the hot sand.

* * *

Soaring, dipping, air cascading over him and his grayish-green and black-streaked wings in cool waves of pleasure. This was the life. Flying free in the open air with his sometimes flock surrounding him.

Yes. Brain didn't always hang out with his famous friends because he and Joel didn't want to be put in James Patterson's novels (where he got the flock's adventures way messed up since he'd only met six of them and attributed all Brain's and Joel's comments to Iggy and Fang).

Fang, Max, and the gang were on their way back to their old house in the mountains, stopping by request of the younger kids at the National Parks they'd never been to. Some Great Sand Dunes or something. Brain rolled his eyes. The younger ones could get Max and/or Fang to do almost anything, and Angel didn't even have to control their minds. Ridiculous.

"Oh my gosh!" Nudge exclaimed. "I can't believe we've never been here before because we didn't live that far away, but I guess it's understandable because we were kind of always on the run…"

They were closing in on the splendid mountains of "great" sand now, Brain noticed. The little kids would probably want to land on top of the tallest one, just to say they had. To who, Brain didn't know. Iggy would probably want to feel the sand, identifying the components and unique colors or something.

Brain sighed as he watched Fang's wingtip brush Max's. Those two lovebirds were so annoying. And the worst part was that they had admitted their feelings! Why couldn't they be like in the books, hating each other?

What was up with chick-magnet Fang, anyway? Didn't anyone go for the mischievous, wacky, yet still sarcastic types anymore? Like Brain and Joel.

Joel was flying in and out of the group, bugging random flock members as he swooped by. Brain snorted in laughter as he watched them bat uselessly at the weaving Joel. At least he was giving them a fighting chance by staying visible.

Yeah, that's right, Joel and Brain were the invisible ones. Fang was not. He faded into the foreground when still, certainly, but that was no power. He seemed a bit too smug that he'd "gotten" that power in the books.

Brain sighed again in exasperation as Gazzy let another one rip. Compared to the current situation and company the dunes couldn't be that bad. Hot, gritty, sandy, but he'd certainly faced worse. They wouldn't be here for too long, surely.

"…and they're, like, the tallest sand dunes in the whole United States, and maybe even the whole world, but I don't know about that part…" the Nudge Channel was still rolling. Yep, there was one thing the books got right, the Nudge Channel.

Brain was about ready to tuck his wings in and just fall rather than hear one more word from that girl's mouth. Or smell one more gift from Gazzy. Or watch the lovebirds give each other yet one more "lovey-dovey" glance. And don't get me started on that freaky little mind-reader.

Most times he felt like he did belong with the flock, but this was not one of those times. He felt the exact opposite. He and Joel were about to set out on their own adventure again, he could feel it. It always happened when he got sick of the flock and they got sick of Joel.

If only he could convince Iggy to come with him and Joel when they went on their week-long forays away from the flock. Iggy was the only cool one in Brain's mind today.

Suddenly, one of the specks scattered on the dunes far below that were probably people drew his attention. It was actually a pair of them. He squinted down and they came into focus—two girls, trekking towards the freaking mountains of ground-up whatever-it-was.

"…like, quartz, too, which is kind of silly to think of because quartz is so pretty but when it's sand it's mixed in so it's not so pretty anymore, except for that one beach we went to, but I don't know if it had much quartz…"

Mentally Brain screamed. But his facial expression didn't change.

The girls in the sand looked like they were about to collapse. The tall one suddenly stopped and put her hand to her head. She looked like she was about to fall over. The one with the weird hair turned around and looked up right where the flock was—could she see them?—just as the first one collapsed.

Blinking in surprise, he wondered vaguely if they should help the girls. He glanced over at Joel—

—who was already streaking toward them. Brain rolled his eyes and darted after him, leaving the flock behind without a second thought.

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Oh no! Cassidy barely had time to think before another thump sounded, behind her. Oh no! she thought again.

She turned around to see who else had fainted out here, and instead came face to face with a very tall, grey-haired boy with…wings?

Cassidy stared, her mouth open like a fish. She hated fish. So she closed her mouth in a hurry.

He looked worried as he stepped past Cassidy, hardly even noticing her, and knelt down next to her friend, only slightly shorter than he was. He had an arm around her shoulders as he cradled her, not making a sound.

Then he seemed to notice her for the first time and stiffened, vanishing into the thick, dry air. Cassidy had already filled her quota of being startled for the day. For the week.

Erma seemed to float limply, but, as already stated, Cassidy was handling the shock quite well by now. The logical part of her would try to figure it out later.

She vowed to stay calm, that is, until someone suddenly came behind her. She turned at the barely perceptible swish of wings, and she caught less than a glimpse of a seventeen year old boy with red, spiked hair. Then he'd hit the ground and remembered to vanish just as thoroughly as his partner had.

Something seemed to click. Who could these two be? Wings, powers, silence, they reminded her of Fang. Cassidy's head fell back and she made out six more figures flying through the air. The flock from the books. Was she missing something here? Was there some factor she couldn't see, literally and figuratively?

When the figure that looked most like Max waved at one of the smaller flying bird-kids, Cassidy didn't know what to expect. Nudge rushed down in glee.

"Gosh you two! She is sooo mad. She and Fang are going to confer and come up with some punishment for you. Ha. They probably won't carry it out, though. Angel told me they're always planning stuff together just so they can have an excuse to talk. Anywho, Max told me to tell you she's demanding to know why you acted so stupidly."

"Well I demand to know the same about her," said Brain we'll fix it later, though to Cassidy, who knew no names, it seemed merely as if the air to her right had decided to mouth off to a flock member.

Nudge twirled a finger through her hair. "Those are her words, and she's not the one who's done something completely random."

Joel we'll fix it later, known only to Cassidy as the bit of air somehow holding Erma up, said, "Who is she to be asking about random? It's not like she and Fang have had a steady relationship since Angel got kidnapped four years ago and they fought over who would get to save her this time until they ended up kissing and I had to save the day."

"Um, excuse me? Who had to save you halfway through your saving-the-day gig? Give credit where it's due." This voice was moving closer to the one by Erma.

Cassidy saw Erma's body jerk strangely and Joel we'll fix it later continued, "Then you wouldn't get any credit." Joel we'll fix it later appeared momentarily as his concentration slipped, a worried expression filtering across his face as he looked at Erma briefly before slinging her over his shoulder and disappearing again.

Cassidy wasn't certain but she thought she heard him say, "All this going to waste because she wasn't conscious to see me show-off." Of course, Cassidy could easily have been mistaken.

Louder, Joel we'll fix it later said valiantly, "The visitor center has water. Let's head back and revive her, okay?"

"Whoa!" Nudge held out her hands. "What am I going to tell Max? She's gonna want to know what you two are up to. This isn't exactly normal, even for you two."

As he'd been hoping for an excuse to leave anyway, and he bet the flock wouldn't mind Joel getting out of their hair (the others got on Brain's nerves, but Joel got on the others' nerves; it all worked out), Brain we'll fix it later replied, "Tell her we'll see her in a couple weeks when you come around to Mount Rushmore. Enjoy your trip."

"Well, you enjoy yours." Nudge wasn't concerned about the two prodigals. If the Flock had to sacrifice Brain to get rid of Joel once in a while, they didn't really mind. She rejoined the flock, leaving the two invisible boys and their new friends on the sand.

Cassidy gasped just as arms swept her up from behind and Brain we'll fix it later launched into the air at the same as Joel we'll fix it later.

Flying would have been exhilarating if Cassidy was in any state to comprehend it. As it was, she was still trying to figure out whether she'd actually seen kids with wings, whether she'd been abducted or rescued, and who exactly the invisible arguers were.

All too soon they landed on the edge of the parking lot, next to the water pumps but out of sight. Well, more out of sight than before. That was only possible for Cassidy and Erma, however.

"Um," Cassidy said. "Um. I know you're there."

No response.

"Huh?" That was Erma, starting to come 'round.

"Erma!" Cassidy raced to her friend's side, glancing suspiciously around for flashes of red or gray hair.

"Aww man!" Brain we'll fix it later groaned. "She's awake already!"

"That's a good thing," Joel we'll fix it later said slowly to his older brother, as if talking to an incredibly stupid person.

"Well I'm not gonna get cheated out of drenching her anyway."

Before Erma had time to take in the disembodied voices discussing her, the water pump started up as if by magic and water was aimed perfectly at her face as she spluttered.

Joel we'll fix it later knocked Brain to the ground, which caused a cloud of sand and dust to rise where they landed. "How unnecessary! Besides, it was my idea first. Cheater." The fact wasn't lost on him that Erma was now awake to see all his antics at full power. Yep. He'd honed his hard-earned skill of teasing. It had better be worth it.

"Why are you invisible? Are you stuck that way?" Erma dragged herself from the wet ground and shook her hands, spraying water droplets on Cassidy, who barely noticed.

"It's force of habit," came one voice as the dust settled. Perhaps the other was over his issues.

"We don't want humans to see us," said the other.

Cassidy sang, "Tooo late." Then, as an aside to her wet friend, she said, "They carried us over here to rescue you from heatstroke because otherwise you would've shriveled up and died. I guess one felt sorry for you or something. The other thought I was beautiful. I saw both of them as they landed, though not again."

"How would staying invisible yet carrying two visible humans keep passersby from suspecting? No, you're right. Girls sail through the air all the time. Staying invisible is still way more inconspicuous," Erma shook her head in mock understanding.

"So," Cassidy begged, "Show yourself."

There was a shimmer and suddenly Erma couldn't see anything. He was standing three inches in front of her. She looked up into his face, which was shrouded by dusty-grey hair the same shade as his extended wings. Erma let out a small "Oh" and was silent.

Cassidy started in on her famous pout when an equally adorable bird-guy failed to materialize three inches in front of her. Then she realized that the reason for this was that a more adorable bird-guy—at least, in her opinion—had materialized two inches in front of her. She thought briefly of saying "Oh," but Erma already had that covered.

Her face was a sight, mouth half open in shock but still half-pouting, eyes wide and confused and awed all at once.

"You're real!" she exclaimed.

"Nope," Brain we'll fix it later said.

Joel (whose last name was we'll fix it later) had been fairly enraptured with Erma's appearance at the beginning of the debacle, was now quite pleased with the way she'd handled the situation (which would've made any regular person faint). He stumbled over this thought as he realized she had fainted at first sight, even before the flock had truly been within human sight range. But the younger We'll Fix It Later ignored this fact. Basically, in his mind, it all worked out to mean that he was pretty sure he liked Erma. Yes he….. "NO!"

Erma watched in confusion as her guy yelled at the other and frantically stammered, "Uh, we can't stay. Gotta go, a world to save, places to be and see and don't die we'll probably never see you again." He spread his fifteen foot wing span and took off without a running start. She got a good view of the strength it took him to rise straight into the air, and she wondered vaguely if this was deliberate. She didn't really care, if he would only stay, but she would try not to be selfish. Who was she to keep him from saving the world?

Joel had squeaked out quickly (in pitches too high for the girls to hear him) that he and Brain couldn't possibly like these two. They were humans who'd get caught up in all the danger that seemed to follow every member of the flock. Now he was gone, making a great show of leaving. Brain chuckled at his younger brother's reason for flying off like that.

In all the excitement Cassidy had nearly forgotten to answer Brain. "Yes, you are," she said seemingly out of nowhere as she turned away from her wistful friend and back toward the red-headed, green-gray-winged bird-boy with the twinkle in his eye.

"Am what?" Brain countered.

"And you're going to leave now, aren't you?" She seemed incredibly sad at this fact, but Brain winked.

"We'll meet again someday, I've no doubt. I'd say follow Joel's advice but only if you can even understand it."

Without thinking, Cassidy reached up and kissed the bird-boy on the cheek, blushing as he grinned and took off backwards.

The two girls sat in stunned silence for a while, but not too long, because soon Cassidy's mom came in search of them, for it was time to head back to their campsite.

"Well, what should we do about this terrible thing?" Erma whispered later that night as both girls got into their beds.

"What?" Cassidy asked, using the are-you-out-of-you-mind tone.

"I've been thinking a lot about our strange encounter today, and, no matter what they say, I'm not ready to admit they're not real. They have to be. Hallucinations don't carry people across the sky." Erma half sat up and looked at Cassidy in her bed.

"So that's a great thing! Secret members of the flock rescued, well, you, and they even let us see them at the end."

"You don't get it! They left! That's bad! We, well I do anyway, need them, or at least the grey-haired one, to come back for me."

"I think I've got an idea," Cassidy replied after a moment. "He came to save you, right?"

"Yeah…" Erma said warily.

"So if we put you back in harm's way, he'll show up again!"

"That's brilliant! But what sort of danger?"

"We'll just have to wait and see. After all, there's danger everywhere, I'm sure we'll find something. We'll know when the time's right, I guess."

"Goodnight, girls!" Cassidy's mom said pointedly. She could hear them whispering, even if she couldn't make out the words.

"Goodnight!" Erma called back cheerfully, and the two girls went to sleep, dreaming of peril, and how they could get themselves into it.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Okay, since it sent out a totally random alert when I tried to replace chapter one with our new, totally different version of this fic, I'm going to be nice and post a real chapter two, as well! See how nice I am to you all? Now you have two chapters to read! This one and the new first chapter! :) READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE AND THANK YOU! lol ;) And yes, before I get reviews telling me that this is just totally stupid and nobody would act like that, this is supposed to be basically a parody created by random minds at midnight. If you don't have a sense of humour that's capable of enjoying this, don't bother reading it. :)_**

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**Chapter Two:**

"Is there danger in the food court?" Erma looked at her friend in expectation. They hadn't decided yet what danger was appropriate. It had to be worth the boys' while.

Cassidy looked up. "I don't think they'd see us. They might be hanging out nearby, but we have to find something to do outside."

"Then why did we come to the mall?" Erma had accepted Cassidy's plan with great enthusiasm and she didn't like the idea of any delays.

"Good question." Cassidy thought for a while. "Oh, yeah. I thought it was because the bookstore was having some sale and we thought we'd look around a bit."

If Erma's thoughts hadn't returned to her rescuer, she would've been surprised at how quickly she had forgotten about books, her greatest, except for her newest obsession over Joel we'll fix it later. She, unlike the reader, didn't know his name yet, of course, because he hadn't told her and she wasn't telepathic…yet.

"Still think it was a good idea to follow them around all day?" Joel we'll— (Forget it; you already know his last name. Henceforth, the brothers will be referred to by their first names only.)

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"If nothing else it will help you stop obsessing over that pitiful creature called Erma."

"I just can't believe you still have a thing for that delirious airhead, Cassidy." Joel sniffed and leaped from his lofty perch, spreading his wings to catch him and take him closer to the girls, who were done eating now. He landed a safe distance behind them and waited for Brain to catch up. "All this sneaking around has given me an idea at any rate."

"What kind of idea?" There was a reason Joel annoyed the rest of the mutants, and Brain had no reason to trust him with everything.

Joel, of course, didn't mention that he really wanted to make up for acting so goofy the day before. "Let's play some pranks on the girls. You know, just to prove to the rest of the flock that we really aren't falling head over heels for them."

"So, when we reunite with the flock, we tell them we played pranks on the girls the day after we rescued them? This will prove that we don't really care for them?" Brain sighed, knowing almost before he said it that the sarcasm would go right over Joel's head.

Joel gave him a goofy nod, which Brain could see because Brain and Joel could always see each other. It was because they thought they were related. About 34 percent certain. They may not have been related, but it didn't matter; as long as they _thought_ they were, they could see each other.

"Won't at least Max and Fang, well, all of them really, want to know why were following them around? Wouldn't that show we couldn't stay away?"

Joel, still wearing his goofy grin, shook his head. "We were only trying to make sure they didn't tell anyone about us."

"So, what's our plan if they do tell someone about us?"

"Deny our whole existence. We aren't real. We're everyone's figments of their imaginations." Joel dodged a woman laden with shopping bags, and he skipped forward a few paces to keep the girls in sight.

"Yes. Appearing before people will definitely convince them we don't exist. That'll work flawlessly."

"Of course!" Joel clapped his hands together. "All my plans are perfect."

"Well, except for the one where you tried to single-handedly save Max and Nudge from the isolation tanks in Florida with nothing except squirrels for backup. Or, you know, that time with the wheelbarrow filled with eggs... Or your failed plan to disguise desert rat as lettuce by using colored pencils—"

"That was years ago!"

"Except for the date with Max II. That was last week."

"That doesn't count. It wasn't a plan." Joel crossed his arms, acting offended.

"I still had to save you." Brain suppressed a snort of laughter and almost ran into a poodle dog that somehow had been let into the mall. It growled, or so it appeared to the astonished lady across the way, at thin air, which instantly growled back.

Joel ignored Brain's childish dealings with the puppy, not knowing why he always had to be the mature one. "That was your plan! Forget it. This'll work. I'm too brilliant to think of something that'll go wrong on the first try. Well, go wrong twice. We can always give it a second try. Then I know for sure it'll work."

* * *

"Third floor."

Responding to Erma's directions, the man wedged by the elevator buttons punched the one with the number three, which had already been alit.

Curiously enough, Erma thought the elevator shouldn't have seemed so crowded. There were a lot of people in it sure, but she could still see a little room here and there. Why was everyone so pushy?

"Why are you so pushy?" asked a little boy to his mother.

"Stop bumping everyone, Harold," she intoned gravely, shoving absently at nothing.

A man in a business suit stumbled over nothing and cursed. The mother pushed him into the walls of the elevator shouting, "Don't use that sort of language in front of my son!"

Through the commotion, Erma was pretty sure she could hear a partially suppressed laughter. At first she wondered if it was her own, then she began to wonder if there were invisible entities messing around with the elevator occupants.

"Cassidy! What's going on?" For some reason, the mysterious people of yesterday didn't even enter her mind as possible explanations for something so petty as shoving people around in an elevator.

Cassidy was giggling. Then she was laughing. Pretty soon she was cracking up so hard at apparently nothing that tears came to her eyes.

Erma stared at her, confused, then looked around, trying to figure out what was so amusing.

Cassidy herself wasn't sure what was so amusing. All she knew was that someone was tickling her and beyond that all she could do was laugh.

At the next floor, which happened to be the third, everyone got off, though both girls could see the number buttons for other floors that were lit as well.

Erma just hoped they weren't all going to the bookstore to take advantage of the sale, otherwise all the half-off books might be sold out, and that would be a disaster. One almost as bad as never getting the boys to show again.

In a mad rush, the girls hurried to the bookstore, but they didn't make it. They were foiled in their attempt when a display beside a store mysteriously began toppling just as they were passing. With her mind on books and boys (one in particular, though thought of him brought up Cassidy's guy, though she couldn't remember what _that_ one looked like), Erma didn't see the wild Siberian tiger coming straight for her, on a collision course with her head.

Cassidy, eyes wide, saw it and grabbed Erma by the arm, yanking her away just in time. Once the commotion died down, and the two girls were far away and out of range of blame, Cassidy glanced around them suspiciously before whispering to Erma, "I think we're being followed."

"What?"

"I said we're being followed," she repeated. "People don't start cracking up in elevators for no reason." Before Erma could comment, Cassidy continued, "And stuffed-animal displays _don't _just jump out and attack people."

Joel watched it all with an amused expression. "They don't?" he whispered to Brain, who told him to be quiet so they could listen better.

Erma bit her lip and wondered aloud, "I wonder what invisible people would be following us around." Then it occurred to her. Of course! What hadn't she thought of it before? Those two boys from yesterday must still like them.

Joel snickered. "Perhaps these girls _are_ a little bonkers if they can't think of us when invisibility comes to mind."

"Or just not as enamored as you'd like, hm?" Brian snickered.

Below them, the girls began whispering too softly for the boys to hear, then Cassidy took a step away from Erma saying, "Go ahead. This should prove it for sure."

Erma had her eyes closed and began walking in a random direction without even putting her arms in front of her. She grinned in her mind, promising to repay these boys for playing pranks on her and Cassidy. The two had decided not to even try for worthwhile danger, for that may take too long. They would just have to get the grey-haired boy to keep Erma from running into something, which would be harmless if he was rude and let her, but it would prove to the girls whether the boys really cared or not. Erma knew she couldn't bring on another fainting spell.

Cassidy began wailing, "Oh no! My friend is delusional and will run into something. Help!"

Erma spoke thickly, "Woe is me!" She, oddly enough, managed to miss all the upright things set in the store. And then she was headed straight for the railing which looked down on the first floor of the mall.

Brain just shook his head, mostly watching Cassidy with a smirk, not even realizing the danger Erma was in.

In fact, nobody but Joel realized the danger Erma was in at first. He saw her and hoped she would give up this foolish plan, but she was going too fast, kept her eyes closed, hit the railing off balance, and the upper half of her body tilted over the drop. Her legs dangled in the air helplessly as her eyes snapped open. This was when Joel decided it was past time to act. By the time the others were paying attention, Erma's feet had already been pulled back to the ground by invisible arms, setting her upright.

Cassidy's mouth dropped open once she realize what had happened. In a plan almost worthy of Joel, she started running toward the railing. "I wanna try!"

Her arm was caught by invisible hands and a voice said. "If you do something that stupid, I'm not going to catch you."

Cassidy just grinned. Now she knew where he was. Or at least, where his hand was. With lightning speed, her other arm shot out and grabbed his.

"Hah! You're still real!" she called in triumph.

To onlookers, this entire scene may have looked like something they would come up with in a dream. After having a few too many drinks. But luckily, there weren't any onlookers. They were all at the bookstore.

"Show yourself," Cassidy demanded. "Please?"

Brain grinned but didn't say anything as Cassidy begged again.

Erma had Joel in a tight embrace. "Though I didn't mean to get that dramatic, I'm glad you care enough to save me."

Joel felt uncomfortable, thought a tad relieved, and he looked over at Brain with a shrug. He whispered, "Keep your eyes open. Perhaps we won't come back. Perhaps we will."

Erma held on tighter to the invisible young man in her arms. At least he'd changed from definitely not coming back to maybe coming back. "Can't you stay awhile? Let us get you an ice cream smoothie. I like those."

Joel laughed, which he wouldn't have done had there been any people around. "You've already had three."

"You've been following us all day!" This was the best thing in all of Erma's fairly unexciting life. "Then you must know that I need to go get a few books now. A sale just started and this is pretty important to me."

"You must like books. Go ahead. I won't keep you." Joel shoved at her arms to no avail. He couldn't get her to loosen her hold, and he didn't want to accidentally hurt her with his super-mutant strength, so he kept talking. "Go on. Your books might be sold out if you wait."

"You'll come with me?" Erma found his hand and held onto that, suddenly remembering what this looked like to others and how silly she felt at acting this way. She slowly let go and held onto his rough hand with all her might.

"Why not?"

"Goodie!" She set off in the direction of the bookstore.

He pulled his hand easily from hers. "I thought of a few reasons now. I might get run over, for one."

Erma felt her eyes fill with tears as his voice faded away. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Probably not, Erma, but it's not like you've really seen me anyway." He drew away. Joel backed up, but he was surprised to see Erma's face break out into a smile.

He was about to find Brain when she burst out, "You know my name! The injustice! I don't know yours, so you'll have to come back to tell me who you are. Ha. My logic is infallible."

Joel thought it a bit immature for people to assume they could do it all. _How egotistical to pretend you aren't human like everyone else. I, of course, have an excuse for my confidence. I'm not _human.

Still, Joel thought he sort of admired her audacity. And she hadn't _tried_ to commit suicide after all, that was an accident.

Brain had found getting Cassidy to let go of his arm considerably more difficult. Prying her off gently hadn't worked, threats and promises did no good at all, and he couldn't tickle her when she held onto his arms so.

To herself, Cassidy smiled. He couldn't leave now. A moment later her frown turned right-side up as he finally got fed up and pushed her away with his super-strength.

"No fair!" she called but by then he was too far away to hear her.

The two boys left the pitifully pouting girls once they saw them reach the bookstore unharmed. They'd buy books to drown out their depression and all would be semi-right in their lives again.

But Brain and Joel didn't plan on going far, or for very long. A day at most. This was getting much too interesting.


End file.
